Surprise! Union Thugs, Obama Supporters Realize That They’ve Been Had

Whatever else you can say, or not say about him, Barack Obama is a master con man. Now that he has been safely re-elected, many are realizing that the pending nightmare that we tried to warn them about is unfolding just as we predicted. Of course, the One’s signature achievement, the federal government’s takeover of the health care system, is the key to all the rest of his plans for us. Now that we passed the bill, and are finding out what’s in it, it turns out that a lot of people aren’t happy, including some of the law’s enthusiastic supporters. From the Wall Street Journal story entitled “Some Unions Grow Wary of Health Law They Backed,”

Labor unions enthusiastically backed the Obama administration’s health-care overhaul when it was up for debate. Now that the law is rolling out, some are turning sour. Union leaders say many of the law’s requirements will drive up the costs for their health-care plans and make unionized workers less competitive. Among other things, the law eliminates the caps on medical benefits and prescription drugs used as cost-containment measures in many health-care plans. It also allows children to stay on their parents’ plans until they turn 26. …

John Wilhelm, chairman of Unite Here Health, the insurance plan for 260,000 union workers at places including hotels, casinos and airports, recalls standing next to Barack Obama at a rally in Nevada when he was a 2008 presidential candidate.

“I heard him say, ‘If you like your health plan, you can keep it,’ ” Mr. Wilhelm recalled. Mr. Wilhelm said he expects the administration will craft a solution so that employer health-care plans won’t be hurt. “If I’m wrong, and the president does not intend to keep his word, I would have severe second thoughts about the law.”

Mr. Wilhelm, how do I break the truth to you? You expect the Obama administration to craft a solution? Do you also believe in the tooth fairy? I’ve got news for you, my gullible friend. This is their solution, and you can expect a continuing parade of horrors over the next year as the full scope of this mess is revealed. You know those senior citizens who withdraw cash from their savings accounts on the promise of getting their share of “found money?” It’s called “the pigeon drop,” and, in this case, you and anyone else who trusted the spawn of the corrupt Chicago machine by way of ACORN, the former Barry Soetoro, are the pigeons. Sadly, though, unlike the classic con, thanks to you, the rest of us have been dragged into this scam. Nicely played!

Meanwhile, Shazam! We’ve discovered another teensy weensy “glitch” in the law, on that the IRS regulations just released will not fix. From The Cherokee Tribune (Canton, GA):

Some families could get priced out of health insurance due to what’s being called a glitch in President Barack Obama’s overhaul law. IRS regulations issued Wednesday failed to fix the problem as liberal backers of the president’s plan had hoped.

As a result, some families that can’t afford the employer coverage that they are offered on the job will not be able to get financial assistance from the government to buy private health insurance on their own. How many people will be affected is unclear.

The Obama administration says its hands were tied by the way Congress wrote the law. Officials said the administration tried to mitigate the impact. Families that can’t get coverage because of the glitch will not face a tax penalty for remaining uninsured, the IRS rules said.

Congress said affordable coverage can’t cost more than 9.5 percent of family income. People with coverage the law considers affordable cannot get subsidies to go into the new insurance markets. The purpose of that restriction was to prevent a stampede away from employer coverage.Congress went on to say that what counts as affordable is keyed to the cost of self-only coverage offered to an individual worker, not his or her family. A typical workplace plan costs about $5,600 for an individual worker. But the cost of family coverage is nearly three times higher, about $15,700, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.So if the employer isn’t willing to chip in for family premiums — as most big companies already do — some families will be out of luck. They may not be able to afford the full premium on their own, and they’d be locked out of the subsidies in the health care overhaul law..

So, to review and summarize, many people will remain uninsured because they won’t be able to afford health insurance.

Somebody help me out here. I thought Obamacare was going to fix this problem once and for all. Could it be that those of us who suggested that this mother of all income-redistribution schemes would only make a challenging situation worse?